Motorists with automobile trouble, such as mechanical failure or running out of fuel have an additional problem in warning approaching motorists of the disabled vehicle which may create a safety hazard to approaching motorists.
Heretofore, it has been accepted practice to tie a white piece of cloth on the door handle of a disabled vehicle to warn approaching motorists that the vehicle is disabled. This practice is deficient in that it does not give any advance warning to approaching motorists and because sometimes the size of the cloth attached to the car is so small that it is frequently not seen in time to serve as an adequate warning.
The use of blinker lights to warn approaching motorists of a disabled car is an improvement over the warning provided by the cloth attached to the car, but the use of blinker lights does not provide advance warning if the car is disabled and stalled just past the top of a hill or just past a curve in the road.
The practice of raising the hood of a disabled vehicle to indicate that the automobile is disabled or nonoperative is another conventional way of giving notice to approaching motorists that the vehicle is disabled. This method of signaling distress is also ineffective of giving adequate notice of distress until the approaching motorist is almost on the scene, as when the disabled vehicle is near a sharp curve or just below the crest of a hill. The raising of the hood is especially unsatisfactory when it is raining because it exposes the engine to the rain.
The use of flares spaced a reasonable distance beyond a disabled vehicle in the path of approaching traffic is recognized in the prior art as an effective advance warning and flares are included as one of several types of warning elements in the safety kit of the present invention.